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Copyright © 2004 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee | May / June 2004 |
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| REACH
OUT: MISSION MATTERS
Bolivian visit shows
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photo by Derek Jamison
La Paz, the largest
and most densely populated city in Bolivia with 850,000 residents, draws
native people from outlying areas who seek an easier life than the hardscrabble
farming of their ancestors. Unable to find work in the city, many turn
to prostitution and to drugs.
photo by Bill Nelson
UT student Zach
England, UT Lutheran chaplain the Rev. Ward Misenheimer, UT Episcopal
chaplain the Rev. Canon Chris Chase and Dan Lee, member of St. John Lutheran,
Knoxville, gather at a church in Ancoraimes, Bolivia.
photo by Sarah Rimer Moss
The American students
accompany a doctor, lower right, and nurse, upper right, on a home visit
to check the health of a mother, top, and her 2-day-old baby. The residence
of straw-mud bricks, whitewashed inside, has a dirt floor. The open-pit
hearth in the home’s center is weak defense against cold air that seeps
through gaps in the roof, but piles of colorful, woven blankets on the
bed reduce the chill.
photo by Zach England
UT student Brett
Backus and UT chaplain the Rev. Chris Chase don chullos, woven Bolivian
hats that were given by members of El Redentor Lutheran Church in La Paz
to each member of the UT group.
photo by Bill Nelson
UT student Jessica
Hansen connects with a young Bolivian. Backus and Hansen return to Bolivia
for the summer to help teach children English.
photo by Bill Nelson
UT student Zach
England poses for a photo with a group of children.
photo by Bill Nelson
Indian mothers
wait with their infants and toddlers for their older children to finish
the day’s schooling.
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Poverty of goods, wealth of soul observed across country By the Rev. Canon Chris Chase It was a disparate group of 16 Lutheran and Episcopal souls that boarded a bus at Church of the Ascension in Knoxville that March morning, a group loosely connected by a desire to travel to Bolivia to do who knew what and to meet who knew whom. It was a group willing to step into that mystery of life trusting that God will re-create, re-form, re-shape life by a simple act of commitment. So I am uncertain why I was shocked to discover that this group of 16 pilgrims would return re-created, re-formed, re-shaped by the movement of the Spirit in a foreign land. We discovered that there is a universal connection that runs through this world, the universe and eternity. We discovered that we and all things owe our existence to the God who creates, forms and shapes existence. This truth was brought home in Bolivia through the paradox of a country that has such hard, sad poverty and yet a depth of soul and peace that we so lack in our own culture. Our time there was split between the harsh realities of urban existence with its broken relationships, broken lives and broken connections and the rural altiplano of the Andes where community is still connected to one another, the earth and to God. We experienced this paradox particularly in two ministries. The first was in La Paz, a city of 850,000 inhabitants. After classes on Saturday morning, a group of local college students went to El Redentor Lutheran church, where they cooked a pot of food. Then they went home to prepare themselves to participate in the urban ministry of Amor en Accion. Their evening began about 8:00 at the church with an intense hour of worship and praise. I’m told the prayers we heard in Spanish included pleas for protection and shielding. After eating a little of the food they had prepared — a powerful symbol of connectedness with those they were about to feed — they descended into what can only be described as hell. The demons have free reign in this section of La Paz, and these angels of Jesus descended armed only with soup and a first aid kit to feed and nurse the hungry and wounded souls and the bodies of drug addicts. (The drug of choice is an airplane-model glue banned in the United States many years ago). These college students entered into the hell of brokenness to love — simply to love. When asked why by one of our group, they looked astonished and replied, “Isn’t it what Jesus would do?” No systematic theology, no biblical criticism, no ethical philosophy — it was a ministry of love to the most needy, because that is what Jesus did. The seeming antithesis of that corner of hell in La Paz was the rural community we experienced on the altiplano. We spent a couple of days in this rural countryside and observed the ministry of Cure Americas, a clinic for the indigenous Aymaran Indians. We passed houses, simple mud huts that were inhabited by — as one student noted — people who were smiling. It was a relief and a welcome contrast to the harshness of the city. The community was so connected that we were allowed to accompany a doctor on a home visit to check the health of a two-day-old baby. The relationship and the trust between doctor and patient was so highly developed that 16 North Americans were welcomed to squeeze into this woman’s tiny bedroom to watch her baby be weighed and measured. The whole time she smiled, and she permitted us to take several photographs. Not hell with its stench of death but heaven with the cries of new birth. We traveled and played, and we cried as we fed street children no older than my son Nicholas, who is four — children who already are trapped in a life of begging and pedophilia. We visited schools where children’s eager eyes expressed hunger for education and where their life overwhelmed us. And through it all God re-created, re-formed, re-shaped so that we were the ones who returned born into a new life, a new commitment and a new conviction. We are planning a return trip in the autumn. We’re exploring ways to raise funds for the schools and for a clinic to treat drug addiction — only $10,000 would be required to build and initially fund a clinic. Two students, Jessica Hansen and Brett Backus, will return to La Paz this summer to teach English, for we discovered from a meeting with former Methodist Bishop Eugenio Poma that knowledge of the English language is a key to empowerment. Please pray for Jess and Brett, and if you would like to help sponsor them, call me at 865-637-2031. |
